Originally, the corporation was created as "The System Administrators Guild, Inc" in July 2004 by volunteers of the USENIX Association as part of a plan to spin off its SAGE Special Technical Group into a separate organization.

The organization's mission is "to advance the practice of system administration; to support, recognize, educate, and encourage its practitioners; and to serve the public through education and outreach on system administration issues".

The LOPSA mentorship program was conceived in 2010 as a way to network inexperienced system administrators with senior members of the organization who could help them on project-related topics.

[3] LOPSA provides an annual stipend for one woman to attend the USENIX Women in Advanced Computing (WiAC) Summit.

[4] LOPSA has formed multiple local chapters in cities in throughout the United States.